Graham Hodson lives for adventure. His entire life has revolved around his obsessive wanderlust. His inner fear of staying in one place or being with one person for too long has kept him on the go. The last thing he expects is a sudden diagnosis to ground his travel—permanently.

Boyce “BC” Brooks has screwed up his lifelong dream of being the captain of the English national rugby team. He’s lost everything. When his uncle leaves him an inn and a dog in Cornwall, he has little choice but to try his hand at innkeeper.

Can two jokesters kicked around by life and their own decisions find stability when their world shakes beneath their feet?

Start at the Beginning

by Dahlia Donovan

I love
the first paragraphs of The Wanderer.

From the prologue:

Weddings were a
pain more excruciating than a broken nose, or tooth, or both—an event to be
avoided when at all possible. Only the blissfully ignorant would voluntarily
submit themselves to the farce of “marital bliss,” never mind the noise,
whimpering women, and a priest who would undoubtedly drone on and on unless
someone whacked him upside the head.

Why
did I agree to this shit? If this bint
sobs into my sleeve one more sodding time, I’ll shove her into the aisle,
manners be damned. I should’ve claimed a sudden bout of dengue fever in Macau
and been done with it.

It still makes me giggle months after I
first wrote it.

The first few sentences manage to bring
Graham’s sarcasm, mood, and philosophy on life into sharp focus. He’s not
interested in love or demonstrations of it. Commitment is way down on the list
of things he wants to have.

In so many areas of his life, Graham could
be considered completely fearless. Not in love. He’s a cowardly lion when it
comes to relationships. He’s a man who has made one massive mistake and refuses
to try again.

A
cowardly ginger lion.

The first paragraph makes me laugh because
I know what’s to come for him. Graham finds in The Wanderer how much courage he actually has. He learns, I think,
how to love—and be loved. It’s not perfect, but he doesn’t need it to be.

Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.